Archives for July 2012

PITTSBURGH, July 2, 2012 – A member of the General Assembly’s Middle East Peacemaking Issues Committee said during the panel's opening session Sunday that this past spring, he went on a trip to Israel sponsored by a U.S.-based organization dedicated to the safety and security of Israel. Kenneth Page, a teaching elder commissioner from Grand Canyon Presbytery, said that "tough questions were asked" during the tour, sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. He said that during a visit to the Israeli security barrier, he asked, "Why this could possibly not be considered a land grab?" Page's committee will take action on several controversial overtures likely to affect the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s relations with Israel and with the American Jewish community. They include calls for divestment from three companies that supply equipment to the Israeli government and its defense forces. The website of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs describes the organization as “the … [Read more...]

PITTSBURGH -- Faith-filled women serve the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in every congregation. The Women of Faith Awards Breakfast celebrated the particular gifts of three women whose faith has informed their work for the church and the community. These women have solved problems, served others and transformed systems with their efforts. “Why me?” the Rev. Ann Rhee Menzie, asked as she stood before a group of women whose leadership and service sustain their congregations. Menzie, a teaching elder-at-large in Redwoods Presbytery, Calif., humbly wondered if she deserved the award more than anyone else in the room. Why me? was also the question that began her journey as a creator of services for survivors of domestic violence and their children. Why me? was a question of despair that she asked when she herself was in an abusive situation. “I was like a ghost,” she said. “People did not know how to deal with me. One in four women experience domestic abuse. Do we as a church recognize their … [Read more...]

PITTSBURGH -- More Presbyterians are in the Pittsburgh region than any place else in the world. To celebrate that legacy, the Senator John Heinz History Center will feature a lecture and exhibit starting Monday, July 2, on “A Bedrock of Faith: Presbyterian Pioneers in Western Pennsylvania.” The exhibit, which explores the influx of Scots-Irish immigrants into the region before and after the Revolutionary War and the growth of Presbyterian churches afterward, will kick off with a lecture from 7-9 p.m. at the center. Peter Gilmore, a local historian who specializes in the roots of the Presbyterian presence here, will discuss the region’s religious and social history, followed by a question-and-answer session with a panel of historians. Gilmore’s lecture is titled “Early Western Pennsylvania Presbyterianism: Diversity and Faithfulness.” “By ‘early’ I refer to roughly the first 50-60 years, about 1770 to 1830,” said Gilmore, who is an adjunct lecturer in history at Carlow University in … [Read more...]

PITTSBURGH, July 1, 2012--The first challenge of Neal Presa’s term as moderator of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed quickly Sunday afternoon as the commissioners confirmed his choice for vice moderator, teaching elder Tara Spuhler McCabe of National Capital Presbytery. Sixty percent of the commissioners present voted in favor of McCabe’s election, and she was then installed as vice moderator. Prior to that vote, a motion to suspend the rules to allow debate on her election did not garner the necessary two-thirds majority, although more than half of the commissioners present voted in favor of it. McCabe made headlines recently when she acknowledged that in April she had signed the marriage license of two women who married in the District of Columbia and at whose ceremony she had officiated. Presa says that he and McCabe disagree on that issue, but that they could model for the PC(USA) a way to work together despite theological … [Read more...]

PITTSBURGH, July 1, 2012—In the first uncontested election for the position since the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was formed in 1983, Gradye Parsons was re-elected Sunday afternoon to a second four-year term as the denomination’s stated clerk. Parsons’ election was by a voice vote, with commissioners asked to say “Alleluia” if they favored his election. There was no noticeable opposition. The Stated Clerk Nomination Committee, which the 219th General Assembly appointed to review applications for the position of the denomination’s chief ecclesiastical officer, received only one application and that was from Parsons. In recommending Parson’s to the commissioners, nominating committee chairman Dennis Hughes recalled the story from the fourth chapter of Mark’s gospel of Jesus calming the storm, a story Parsons referred to in 2008 when he was elected to his first term. Parsons told commissioners then that “we are in the boat together; there will be storms; we will not … [Read more...]

Pittsburgh -- The Presbyterian missionaries who started schools for the Native American tribes in Alaska in the late 1800s had the best of intentions. They would educate the children – teaching them about the American language, culture and faith. Over time, however, those good intentions led to a culture of oppression. As part of the Riverside Conversation on Equipping the Church for Ministry with God’s Diverse Family, the Rev. Curt Karns, executive presbyter of Yukon Presbytery, described the reconciliation work that has recently begun between the church and community of Gambell, an Alaskan town just 36 miles from Siberia. “The program began with good intentions, providing education for the children who lived in the area,” Rev. Karns says. “However, that education required assimilation. The Native Americans were forced to give up important parts of their cultural heritage. They were no longer permitted to speak in their native language or participate in drumming and dancing rituals … [Read more...]